Computer systems and related technology affect many aspects of society. Indeed, the computer system's ability to process information has transformed the way we live and work. Computer systems now commonly perform a host of tasks (e.g., word processing, scheduling, accounting, etc.) that prior to the advent of the computer system were performed manually. More recently, computer systems have been coupled to one another and to other electronic devices to form both wired and wireless computer networks over which the computer systems and other electronic devices can transfer electronic data.
As computing systems have become cheaper and smaller, they have begun to proliferate to almost all areas of life. For example, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are network-connected devices that are placed in many physical spaces to enable people to interact with and gather information about their environment. For example, offices or homes may include numerous IoT devices that can be used to control locks, to manage indoor climate and receive climate information, to manage lighting and receive lighting information, to open and close doors, to perform cleaning functions, to control audio and/or video equipment, to provide voice interaction, to provide security and monitoring capabilities, etc. As such, IoT devices can process and generate vast amounts of information. Notably, IoT devices are not limited to use in structures such as offices or homes. For example, IoT devices may be used to track any manner of physical items (including, for example, animals such as livestock or pets), to monitor health of people or animals, and so forth.
As IoT devices proliferate, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage the devices and their users, and to process the data they generate. Notably, it may often be difficult to intuitively manage and group such devices (e.g., based on physical space or synergistic functionality), to efficiently control these devices (including controlling user access), to efficiently access data associated with these devices and/or to efficiently visualize live sensor data associated with these devices in relation to a physical space. For example, managing IoT devices could involve storing large amounts of data associated with the physical environment in which they exist (e.g., buildings with their floors, rooms, room types, objects the rooms, etc.). Similarly, large numbers of devices may also result in enormous amounts of generated data (e.g., sensor data) that may be difficult to manage and access, and to link to the physical environment.